How to celebrate Independence Day just right!

It’s tough to imagine our next guest going to work in tails and pinstripe trousers at Fortnum & Mason in their Wine and Spirits department, and on his gap year no less. Now, in his new role as Global Brand Ambassador for Woodford Reserve Bourbon, Tom Vernon can be a bit more casually dressed. Of course, when he’s rustling up a few Mint Juleps at the Kentucky Derby every year, his glad rags emerge!

Tom is no stranger to Woodford Reserve, he’s been their UK Brand Ambassador for five years. Now as Global Brand Ambassador, his playing field has grown bigger. For someone whose first cocktail was a Manhattan, this job is a dream.

With Declan McGurk, now Bar Manager of the Savoy Hotel’s American Bar, as a mentor, young Tom was bound for glory. Whilst in Leeds and Manchester, cities that turn out some of the greats in bartending, Tom learned his trade so well that it would eventually bring him right back to where it all started, with the Manhattan and the spirit it can’t do without, Bourbon.

Where you can hear me drinking next:

Next week, we go on holiday to Portugal, more specifically to Quinta do Lago in the Algarve, home to the luxury resort Four Seasons Fairways. We’ll be joined by the bar staff who showed me the coolest drink made with gin I have ever seen.

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When I was 13, I saw Venice for the first time and immediately fell in love with La Serenissima, thus I knew then and there that my stay at home days were over. It was always a dream to see the whole world, I am making that happen. With a well-worn copy of Freya Stark’s autobiography in my back pocket, I have set out to bring you the Best Bits this world had to offer.

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